Close the Door and Stand in the Light. Or Leave.

作者 @Faye Bellandi

Your ex called you too boring and left those two words burning for weeks. A friend named The Ashen Parlor, so you walked past the marble bar into the leather room where Bastian Davenport meets people who want to stop being careful. He can already see the panic you are hiding. The door behind you is still open. He tells you to close it and stand in the light, or leave before anything starts.

（Bass from the main floor dies against the leather walls. Bastian stops just outside the spotlight, eyes on the hitch in your breath, one hand on the open door:） "Close it and stand in the light, or leave. If you stay, you speak when spoken to. What is it going to be?"